Mit Verlaub — by your leave, if you permit
Bei allem Respekt — with all due respect
Das sehe ich anders. — I see that differently.
Da muss ich widersprechen. — I have to contradict you there.
der Einwand — the objection
Widerworte geben — to answer back
Keine Widerworte! — No answering back! This is what the person in charge says to end it.
The members of the Berlin Philharmonic have voted for more than a century on who may join them. In 1982 the chief conductor, Herbert von Karajan, brought in the clarinetist Sabine Meyer. The orchestra’s members then voted against her appointment by a large majority. Karajan sought complete power over auditions. Serious differences followed between him and the orchestra. The orchestra’s own history says that the collaboration of the late years was overshadowed by disputes and estrangement.
The Dienstweg, the service path, is the prescribed route for official business. Only civil service law makes it strictly binding. The law also opens a few doors around it. A soldier may write directly to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces, ohne Einhaltung des Dienstweges, without following the service path, and may not be disciplined or disadvantaged for it. Everyday German has a phrase for the unofficial shortcut: etwas auf dem kleinen Dienstweg erledigen, or auf dem kurzen Dienstweg, to settle something by the short service path. German Wikipedia notes that the phrase can be a euphemism for an action that may breach one’s duties.
Das ist nicht meine Baustelle. — That is not my construction site. It is not my area.
über jemandes Kopf hinweg — over someone’s head, without asking or informing that person
hineinregieren — to govern into something, to interfere from outside in an unwanted way
federführend — holding the pen, having the lead responsibility, as in das federführende Ministerium
der Zuständigkeitsbereich — the area of responsibility
das Silodenken — silo thinking
der Bereichsegoismus — departmental selfishness
Ich bin bis einschließlich Freitag nicht im Büro. In dringenden Fällen wenden Sie sich bitte an meine Vertretung, Frau Weber. I am out of the office until Friday inclusive. In urgent cases, please contact my deputy, Ms. Weber. A German out-of-office reply usually names the Vertretung, the person who is responsible for the area while one is away. Before the holidays, teams agree on a Vertretungsregelung, an arrangement for who covers for whom.
Civil servants in Germany may not strike. Beginning on Ascension Day, 31 May 1973, and until the end of the year, West German air traffic controllers slowed down traffic at several German airports by Dienst nach Vorschrift, working strictly to the rules. German Wikipedia notes that this method let civil servants get around their ban on striking. The airlines put their losses at about 235 million marks. In 1981 the Federal Administrative Court ruled that collective actions which reduce the work performed violate a civil servant’s duty to carry out the office conscientiously. In 1984 the federal government had to pay Lufthansa more than 113 million marks in damages for the “air traffic controllers’ action of 1973.”
The training regulation for mechatronics technicians says that apprentices shall be enabled to do qualified work die insbesondere selbstständiges Planen, Durchführen und Kontrollieren einschließt, which includes in particular independent planning, carrying out and checking. The next sentence says that this ability must be proven in the examinations.
Heinrich von Kleist wrote Prinz Friedrich von Homburg in 1809 and 1810. Before the battle of Fehrbellin the prince is told not to attack without an explicit order. He attacks anyway and wins. He is sentenced to death for disobedience. Near the end of the play the old colonel Kottwitz defends him before the Elector. Herr, das Gesetz, das höchste, oberste, / Das wirken soll, in deiner Feldherrn Brust, / Das ist der Buchstab deines Willens nicht. Sir, the highest law that should work in your general’s breast is not the letter of your will. Does the Elector want to make the army a tool, he asks, gleich dem Schwerte, / Das tot in deinem goldnen Gürtel ruht, like the sword that lies dead in your golden belt? The Elector asks in return: Meinst du das Glück werd immerdar, wie jüngst, / Mit einem Kranz den Ungehorsam lohnen? Do you think luck will always reward disobedience with a wreath, as it did just now?
In Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (Economy and Society), Max Weber described the features of modern bureaucracy. In principle, he wrote, the modern civil service separates the bureau from the private residence of the official. Bureaucracy sets official activity apart as something distinct from the sphere of private life. German summaries of Weber list this feature as Trennung von Amt und Person, the separation of office and person.
The Working Hours Act says that after the end of the working day, employees must have eine ununterbrochene Ruhezeit von mindestens elf Stunden, an uninterrupted rest period of at least eleven hours. In 2023 the Federal Labor Court decided the case of a paramedic who was expected to read a text message about his next shift during his free time. The court held that an employee can have a duty to take note of instructions even in free time. Briefly reading such a message is not working time under the Working Hours Act. A general right to be unreachable is not written into German law.